A space for the discussion of the changing landscape in education and the exciting possibilities this holds for those with the courage and vision to imagine a new future for our kids

Tuesday, July 30, 2013

Bitter or Sweet? First Fruits of Teacher Evaluation in NY

Among many good things that
took place for the Dobbs Ferry School District over this past year, the
District was accepted as a member of the prestigious Tri-States Consortium.
Founded in 1992, the Tri-States Consortium has developed an alternative assessment
model designed to enhance student performance in high performing districts. In
addition to providing extremely high quality professional development for
teachers and administrators, the Tri-States Consortium offers site visit
services to member districts as an alternative to Middle States Accreditation
and other types of “monitoring.”

This past spring, I had the pleasure of
participating on a site visit team to the Bronxville Schools where our team was
charged with looking for evidence of critical thinking skills across the
curriculum. This was a new and unusual “take” on these types of school visits
since the team was charged with corroborating evidence of 21st
Century skills.

It was an enlightening
experience. I know that I speak for all of us on the visiting team when I say
that the learning goes in both directions whenever we have the opportunity to
engage with a school system in such an intimate way. Bronxville allowed a
“fearless look” at what is happening in their classrooms in an effort to support
and sustain meaningful change.

During the 2013-2014 school
year, Dobbs Ferry will begin to think about a Tri-States Consortium site visit
for the 2014-2015 school year. We will
be sure to keep everyone informed as we move forward in this process.

Another advantage of our
membership with Tri-States is our access to the consortium white papers and
research documents. In the late spring, the group issued an extremely well
articulated position on Teacher Evaluation.

As the new school year
quickly approaches and the “first fruits” of the new teacher evaluation system
in New York come to bear, gaining perspective and insight is critical.

And so I am hoping that you
will find this Position Paper from the Tri-States Consortium helpful as we endeavor
to make sense and meaning of this new “window” on teaching and learning.